35th anniversary of the Tiananmen Massacre (June 4)

“To this day, the Communist Party of China (CPC) denies the Tiananmen Square Massacre. Young people in China are not aware of the protest movement and the massacres – as the CPC was able to stay in power,” explained Jasna Causevic, expert on genocide prevention and the Responsibility to Protect at the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP), on the occasion of the 35th anniversary of the massacre. In April and May of 1989, hundreds of thousands of Chinese students and citizens had taken to the streets to protest against mismanagement and corruption, but the Chinese brutally crushed the peaceful protests on Tiananmen Square on the night of June 4

“To date, the Chinese government has not taken responsibility for the human rights violations committed during the military operation. On the contrary: The authorities are still systematically censoring all references to the actions of the military,” Causevic criticized. Democracy activists such as the Tiananmen Mothers – who have been publishing open letters to the National Assembly every year since 1989 – are harassed, suppressed, and criminalized. The family members of the victims of the Tiananmen Massacre are stll demanding public investigations into the event, punishment of those responsible, and the right to publicly commemorate the dead.

“This year, at least one of the founders of the Tiananmen Mothers, Zhang Xianling, was submitted to surveillance in her own house. Other activists of 1989 were arrested based on charges of alleged ‘inflammatory contributions’ in connection with an alleged ‘upcoming sensitive date’,” Causevic reported. “The Chinese government is and remains ruthless. In order to stay in power, the regime commits human rights violations and has imposed massive restrictions on fundamental rights. The German Federal Government should clearly criticize the suppression of any commemoration of the massacre and associated repressions,” the human rights activist emphasized.  

China is also massively suppressing commemoration of the massacre in Hong Kong. “The impressive commemoration event in Victoria Park in Hong Kong, where hundreds of thousands of people lit candles, has been banned since the introduction of the 2020 Security Law. For Chinese people living abroad, it is thus all the more important to commemorate the victims of the Tiananmen Massacre on this day. All over the world, there will be commemoration events: In New York, London, Tokyo, Melbourne, Amsterdam, Paris, and many other cities, there will be vigils, exhibitions, and conferences to condemn the crime and to honor the victims,” stated Tienchi Martin-Liao, Taiwanese human rights activist and President of Sino Euro Voices.

To commemorate the student hunger strike of 1989, many exiled Chinese and Chinese people living in Europe have called for a ten-day fasting vigil from May 26 to June 4 this year. Sino Euro Voices e.V. is organizing a Zoom conference on June 3, where international activists, politicians and scientists will talk about the massacre of June 4.